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Principles and Fallacies 



OF 



SOCIALISM 



BY 



DAVID J. HILL 



Entered at the Post Office, N\ Y., as second-class matter. 
Copyright lS84,bv John W. Lovell Co. 



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PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES 



OF 



SOCIALISM 



DAVID J. HILL. LL.D. 

President of th£ University at Lewt&urg 





NEW YOSK 
JOHN W, LOYELL COMPANY 

14 ±ni> 16 Vesey Street 



HX«t 

. H&4 



Copyright, 1885, by 
JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY 



TROWS 

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANYj 

NEW YORK, 



PREFACE. 



This little book is designed as a compendious 
statement of the principles and fallacies of Social- 
ism as popularly presented by its advocates in 
America. The sections of which it is composed 
appeared during the present winter as editorial 
articles in the Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette, 
and met with such acceptance by the public as to 
suggest a wider publication. 

It is hoped that the discussion of economic and 
political questions here undertaken will assist 
readers who have but little time for the study of 
such topics to arrive at sound and intelligent 
views on the constitution of industrial society. 

David J. Hill. 

January 15, 1885. 



COXTEKTS. 



PAGE 

T. — Introductory , 7 

IL— Socialistic Classification , 11 

III,— The Socialistic War Cry 16 

IV, — Socialistic Polities 21 

V. — Governmental Co-operation 25 

VI. — Socialistic Ideas of Waste 30 

VII.— The Iron Law of Wages 85 

VIII. — The Aristocracy of Labor 40 

IX.— What is Cost ? 45 

X.— Socialistic Ideas of Money , , , . 49 

XI.- — The Attack on the National Banks 53 

XII.— Socialistic Ideas of the State 58 

XIII. — Socialism and Democracy , 02 

} XIV.— The Distribution of Wealth 67 

XV.— Great Fortunes , , . . , 71 

XVI.— Wealth and Want 76 

XVII. — The Organization of Socialism 80 

XVIII.— The Socialistic Ketrospeet 84 

XIX. — A Recommendation to Socialists , 89 

XX,— The Responsibility of Socialism. ............. 93 



PKESTCIPLES A^D FALLACIES 



OF 



SOCIALISM. 



L 

Introductory. 
An evil always demands a cure. In the mo- 
narchical countries of Europe war, monopoly, and 
inheritance have produced inequalities in the 
social condition of men that cannot be observed 
without the suggestion of injustice as the cause. 
The segregation of men into distinctly marked 
classes, an aristocracy, a bourgeoisie and a prole- 
tariat, indicates the presence and operation of 
social factors that are unnatural and unjust. 
Thoughtful men have given attention to these 
facts, and the result has been various systems of 
Socialism of varying degrees "of ingenuity and 
practicability. It is not our purpose to trace these 
historically, or to treat them analytically and crit- 
ically, though that would be a service to the 



8 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

thoughtful among our readers who have not ac- 
cess to the facts and the discussions of them. 

At present we wish to note the appearance of 
Socialism in our own country and to speak of its 
aims and intentions. It is well known that cer- 
tain malcontents have attempted to inculcate the 
doctrines of Socialism among our industrial class, 
that organizations exist for this purpose, and that 
money has been raised and expended in the equip- 
ment of a Socialistic propaganda. A recent work 
entitled " Socialism," * written for popular use 
and published by one of the most widely known 
of American producers of cheap literature, sets 
forth the aim of the Socialists in our own land 
and advocates their doctrines. The little treatise 
is called " The Gage of War ; the Iron Gauntlet 
Thrown into the Lists, " and affirms that " these 
questions can be decided finally and forever by 
no other means than by the sword of war" It 
exhorts its readers to " bend every energy to the 
education of the people, that they may, %ohen 
clangs the fateful hour, know how and tchere to 
strike for liberty or death" 



* Socialism, by Burnette G. Haskell. Published by John 
W. Lovell Company. 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 9 

That this publication is insurrectionary and 
hostile to our Government is evident from its 
own words and doctrines. " When the rising — 
which will be one of blind, wrathful, ignorant 
producers — comes, then must the Socialists of 
America be prepared to unfurl the scarlet flag, 
and with it in hand head the assault as the lead- 
ers of the people, pointing out to them not only 
their wrongs, but their only salvation — free land, 
free tools, and free money ! " Here is a proposi- 
tion to overturn the foundations of society by a 
denial of the right to landed property and capi- 
tal, both in the form of machinery and of 
money. But the revolution is to be not only 
economic, but political. The President and the 
Senate are to be abolished. The Government is 
to control the railroads and the telegraph lines, 
and carry on all industries. Interest and rent 
are to be allowed no more. In short, it is pro- 
posed to convert the Nation into a great com- 
mune, having control of all the substantial in- 
terests of the country, to the exclusion of private 
enterprise. 

It would be appalling if all these propositions 
were likely to be carried into execution. It is 



10 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

not proposed to carry them into execution now. 
"The fateful hour" has not yet arrived. The 
design of the Socialists is, however, to bring it 
to pass as soon as they can educate the people 
into their ideas of revolution. It is undeniable 
that they address themselves to powerful mo- 
tives in the minds of men, and that they do so 
with great skill and ingenuity. But we think 
that many of their reasonings are grossly falla- 
cious and can be shown to be to all intelligent men. 
The protection of industry and the resources of 
our country prevent men from hastily following 
the lead of these theorists, but there are certain 
minds that will be misled by them. We pro- 
pose, therefore, to examine with some detail the 
positions assumed by these writers, and to en- 
deavor to point out at once their mistakes and 
the true economic and political ideas that lie at 
the basis of industrial success. There are prob- 
lems in the life of the workingman that are 
pressing for solution, and it is wisest that he be 
invited to solve them in the light of calm and 
non-partisan discussion. Truth is mighty and 
will prevail, and perhaps when these revolution- 
ary reformers have said all they have to say, and 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 11 

what they have said has been considered delibe- 
rately by the workingmen of our country, the 
"fateful hour" will never come and the " scarlet 
flag " will not be flung to the winds of battle. 
There can be no more useful expenditure of 
time for thousands of our readers than to sift to 
the bottom the proposals for their benefit, that 
they may ' be able to act intelligently if ever a 
day of action should arrive. 



II. 

Socialistic Classification. 

We propose in the present section to consider 
the Socialistic division of the American popula- 
tion into classes. The most popular handbook 

proposes the following : 

• 

Modern " civilized " Society is divided into 
three classes, as follows : 

The Aristocracy, consisting of those people in 
Europe who come of " gentle blood," and those 
in America who live upon inherited wealth — the 
Drones. 

The Bourgeoisie, consisting of all of those 
who derive their living from rent, profit, or in- 



12 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

terest : those, in short, who are not wage- work- 
ers, together with their hangers-on and allies — - 
the Robbers. 

The Proletariat, the working people of the 
world ; those who really do the work, and who 
receive in return for their labor a part of its 
worth, called " wages " — the Plundered Slaves. 

The first principle of classification is that the 
classes should not include one another. If this 
rule is violated, the classification is # defective. 
" Those who live upon inherited wealth," say the 
Socialists, constitute the " aristocracy." Noth- 
ing is here said of the manner of life or the 
amount of annual expenditure or the proportion 
of income derived from inherited wealth. A 
widow who earns her bread for herself and six 
fatherless children by the use of her needle lives 
near the writer. She has an income of $100 
from bonds purchased with the money paid by 
an insurance company on a policy held by her 
husband for her benefit at the time of his death. 
She lives in part upon inherited wealth. Does 
she belong to the " aristocracy ? " Is she a 
" drone ? " Has society a claim upon this in- 
come ? One of her little sons sells newspapers 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 13 

on the streets and receives a small " profit " on 
each copy. Does he belong to the " bour- 
geoisie ? " Is he a " robber? " Another neigh- 
bor who owns a fine property, worth twice as 
much as the widow's investment, shoes horses 
with liis own hands as the employe of a man 
who hires the shop in which the work is done 
and owns not a foot of real estate. Does he be- 
long to the " proletariat ? " Is he one of the 
" plundered slaves ? " 

What becomes of this pretentious classification 
when tested by practical cases ? Its artificiality 
and utter uselessness become instantly apparent. 
It is part of a theory that has no foundation in 
reality and was made by its inventor to meet only 
imaginary conditions. In America there are no 
classes corresponding to the three enumerated. 
In truth, there are no classes at all. There are 
drones and robbers and plundered slaves, but they 
cannot be classed under names borrowed from 
European social conditions and having no mean- 
ing among our people. There are plundered 
slaves among those who have inherited wealth 
and there are robbers among those who receive 
wages and work for them. 



14 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

The root of the fallacy here is the denial of the 
right of inheritance. This includes the denial of 
the right to receive rent, profit, or interest, because 
these are the forms in which inherited wealth be- 
comes productive. But the right of inheritance 
is as clear as the right of property. If I may 
earn a dollar and use it or save it as I please 
when I have earned it, I may give it to my child 
to better his condition. If I may give him one 
dollar, by the same title I may give him two or 
ten or any number of dollars I possess. The 
Socialistic position is a clear intrusion upon the 
most fundamental right of man, the right to use 
and preserve his own. 

The acceptance of this doctrine in practice 
would not only wrest from all whose industry and 
prudence have put them in possession of property, 
all control over that property, but it would re- 
move from all men every prospect of betterment. 
It would necessitate the perpetual continuation 
of only one class, a genuine proletariat, for there 
could be no emergence out of this condition. The 
first man who put aside a portion of his earnings 
would be condemned as no longer a wage-worker 
but a capitalist. If lie owned a little home, so as 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 15 

to save paying rent to another by paying rent to 
himself, he would fall under the stigma of institu- 
ting a bourgeoisie class. Every owner of a cot- 
tage and every aspirant to the ownership of one 
is thus condemned by the Socialistic theory. 

Surely the workingmen of America, all of 
whom look forward to the acquisition of property, 
if they do not already possess it, cannot be led to 
make war on their own rights and to out them- 
selves off from all improvement of their condi- 
tion. It is hardly to be assumed that the writers 
of Socialistic literature surrender the royalties on 
the books they write for the sake of belonging to 
the proletariat class. It is rather their intention 
to lift themselves out of an impecunious condi- 
tion by using the profits on the books sold to 
workingmen. Nothing could be more insincere 
and transparent than this attempt to rouse the 
envy of the poor by drawing lines that do not 
actually exist. Thousands of our countrymen, 
born in cabins wdiich their fathers did not 
own, have accumulated wealth by honest industry, 
and they and their children are enjoying it. It 
is the hope and ambition of every aspiring man 
to do the same. There are no impassable bar- 



16 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

riers ; there are no bonds of birth that prevent 
success. It requires only energy, industry, intel- 
ligence and economy to repeat what others have 
done. The Socialists are really proposing to 
render the lowest condition permanent for all by 
destroying the conditions of betterment. Their 
more immediate aim, however, is to capture for 
'themselves as much existing w T ealth as possible 
and leave others who come after them to create 
new wealth when they have appropriated what 
they can secure. 



III. 

. The Socialistic War Cry. 

Every great organization must have its watch- 
words and its rallying shout. The Socialists 
have chosen the expressive motto, " Free land, 
free tools, and free money.'* By " free " we sup- 
pose they mean open to all equally and in com- 
mon. The aim of Socialism is to abolish entirely 
rent, profit, and interest. In other words, it is 
that capital shall be considered common property 
in which all shall have an equal share. 



PRINCIPLES AND ' FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 17. 

The absurdity and injustice of the claim are 
apparent as soon as one examines the origin of 
capital and comprehends its nature. It is the 
product of labor. Of whose labor ? Of those 
who have created it. Theirs it is both to use and 
transmit, unless the right of property is called in 
question. Procdhon did call it in question and 
said in so many words, "Property is a crime.' 9 
There is no other logical ground for Socialism to 
stand upon. Modern Socialists admit the right 
of property under certain limitations because they 
know that its denial is so transcendently silly that 
it would not command serious attention. 

Let us look at the demand for free land. 
Henry George has said all that can be said in 
its favor, but he and all others w T ho defend the 
public ownership of land beyond Governmental 
control miss the essential consideration in the 
question of value. Land, in its natural condition, 
is utterly valueless. There are millions of acres 
of it in the world even now that no man would 
occupy for the possession of it. Wiry is it that 
these tracts of land go begging for occupants 
while other portions are worth hundreds of dol- 
lars per square foot ? Primarily because of Joca- 



18 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

tion. But what is location? Proximity to ag- 
gregated population and the improvements of land. 
Land is valueless, then, when it is unimproved 
and at a distance from improvements. But these 
improvements have required labor. They really 
represent so much toil and self-denial. Whose 
toil and self-denial ? The toil and self-denial 
of those who have made the improvements in 
faith that they would be remunerated. Has no 
one had the advantage of improvements except 
those who have made them ? Yes, those who 
have bought land and held it for that rise that 
comes of reflected value derived from the improve- 
ments of others. Do these people own this land 
rightly ? They cannot be praised as public 
spirited, but they have paid their taxes and lost 
their interest and waited against temptations to 
use their money otherwise, and ownership is their 
reward. It can be shown, too, that land is worth 
in the market what it has cost to make it what it 
is. The cry for "free land," then, is a repudia- 
tion of the right of private property. 

Very much the same must be said of the de- 
mand for " free tools." All tools, from a pick-axe 
up to a Corliss engine, are products of industry. 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 19 

They are crystallized industry.. They represent 
the labor of the past. If they are not the prod- 
ucts of the owner's direct labor, they are the 
products of labor for which his money was given 
as an equivalent. It is idle, then, to talk of " free 
tools. " Tools cannot be " free " unless every- 
thing else is free. To make them so justly 
would involve the abolition of private property 
altogether. 

The plea for " free money " means the aboli- 
tion of interest. The doctrine that interest 
ought to be abolished is not a new one. It has 
been held by all who have not analyzed produc- 
tion and taken account of its factors. These are 
labor and capital. Without capital, labor is not 
wanted in the market. This is evident from the 
fact that labor is dear when money is plenty and 
cannot find employment when money is scarce. 
Suppose that all the capital now engaged in the 
iron production of Pennsylvania were suddenly 
withdrawn. Production would not more instant- 
ly cease if all the laborers engaged in that indus- 
try should suddenly strike. It is an economic 
axiom that every service has value. Does capital 
bear no relation of service to society ? Observe 



20 PRItfClFLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

how society suffers when capital is not accessible 
in abundance, and you have the answer. Capital 
offers as important a service to production as labor 
does. Both are essential. How, then, can we 
deny a reward to tlie service of capital without 
denying a reward to the service of labor ? If in- 
terest is unjust, what shall be said of wages ? 

That all this bluster on the part of Socialists is 
merely rhetorical, is evident from the report to 
vituperation instead of fact and argument. " The 
interest-taker is a slow, crawling and hideous vam- 
pire, that destroys all vigor and all bloom in life." 
Such is the Socialistic dictum. The man who 
saves a little money during the strength of his 
youth in order to support himself by substituting 
it for the labor which in old age he cannot longer 
render, is " a slow, crawling, hideous vampire." 
The qualifications of the Socialists, both moral 
and intellectual, to lead the thought of working- 
men and direct their hopes and ambitions, are ap- 
parent from this delicate use of language. Every 
man and woman that holds a note bearing interest 
is classed among the reptiles. The Socialistic 
war-cry is an insult to the American people when 
its meaning is once explained. 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 21 

IV. 

Socialistic Politics. 

The Socialistic movement is not merely eco- 
nomic in its designs but also political. It aims to 
advance its interests by. the destruction of present 
governmental forms. Its first revolutionary pro- 
posal is to abolish the Presidency and Senate of 
the United States. Here is the statement of its 
object and the method of accomplishing it: — 

One of the first steps to be taken is to obtain a 
true representative Government of, by, and for all 
the people. 

To this end all heads of Governments, as now 
existing, must be abolished, such as emperors, 
kings, presidents, and governors, and with them 
must disappear all upper or unrepresentative 
houses or chambers of legislation, which were, 
it would seem, invented for the sole purpose of 
preventing popular legislation, and to impede the 
will of the people. 

It is further represented that the " President is 
at best but a figure-head, more ornamental than 
useful ; he is a King with a change of name, and 



Z% PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

possesses more than kingly patronage, powers, 
and prerogatives." The case of Socialism against 
the executive department of the Government is, 
however, not really stated in the rhetorical decla- 
mation advanced instead of argument for the 
abolition of the Presidency. There is no reason- 
able attempt to meet and answer the considerations 
that had weight with the framers of our Consti- 
tution when the Government was given its pres- 
ent form. No reasons are advanced to show that 
the theoretical division into legislative, judicial, 
and executive functions is not a good one. The 
real cause of the opposition to the executive de- 
partment, the motive lying back of all this ful- 
mination against the Presidency, is carefully con- 
cealed but cannot be successfully hidden. It is 
this : First remove the executive officer from his 
place of authority, then raise the standard of 
revolution against all the institutions of modern 
society, and what power can stay the progress of 
the insurrection ? And it is not only the execu- 
tive office in the Nation, but in the States, that 
the Socialists want abolished. All the Governors 
must go, so that there will be no one to call out 
the militia and stay the progress of revolution and 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 23 

the destruction of property. Dissatisfied with 
present laws, the Socialists want to destroy the 
power that enforces them, in order that anarchy 
may reign while they transform society to their 
liking. " Under the present system," say the 
Socialists, " absolutely nothing, except to grin and 
bear it, can be done. We have no legal remedy 
and we are too cowardly to apply a natural, speedy, 
and effective remedy, viz. : to hang eve? r y one of 
them " (the Legislators). This fully betrays the 
animus that prompts the abolition of the Presi- 
dency. The reason that urges the Socialists to 
abolish it is the very reason that led good men to 
establish it, in order that there might be a power 
in the Nation to enforce the laws, if need be. 

The Socialists are not only destructive in their 
political plans, but constructive also. They wish 
to revolutionize representation and the enactment 
of laws. They would have a House of Repre- 
sentatives of about five hundred members, who 
should each represent about one hundred thou- 
sand inhabitants. These should be chosen with- 
out regard to locality. The duty of this House 
would be to classify and prepare laws, and at 
stated times distribute copies among the people 



24 PRINCIPLES AND FALLxlCIES OF SOCIALISM. 

for their ratification by direct vote. This method 
is known as the " Referendum." Another nov- 
elty is called the "Imperative Mandate," by 
which is meant that representatives and public 
servants should retain their places only as long 
as they carried out the instructions of the people, 
which instructions should be imperative. 

The system of representation advocated here is 
certainly not to be rejected with a mere sneer. 
Its practicability in a great nation cannot be 
argued, however, from its partial success in the 
Swiss Republic. The defects are principally two. 
All the advantage of a calm and impartial in- 
vestigation into the interests of a whole country 
by trained statesmen is lost, and the opinions of 
men of untrained minds regarding only their 
local environment, and actuated mainly by local 
interest, would not be likely to be either wise or 
generous. It is true that it cannot be pretended 
that we have at present wise statesmen exclu- 
sively in our legislative bodies, but we might 
have, and intelligent reform in our political 
choice would present a perfect cure to existing 
evils. But the turning of all public questions 
over to the people in mass to decide, might 



PRINCIPLES AXD FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 25 

easily involve the Nation in discord and misun- 
derstanding interminable. The interests of a 
great nation like ours are too vast and various to 
admit of this method of legislation. 

The object of all this is plain to see. If all 
legislation were open to revision by popular vote, 
it would not take long for Socialistic demagogues 
to induce voters to legislate themselves into all 
the advantages that a redistribution of wealth 
might afford. Hence it is a part of the Social- 
istic programme to reconstruct the political struc- 
ture of the Government, in order to facilitate 
their ends of plunder. 



V. 

Governmental Co-operation. 

In the production of wealth there are two 
shares of result, as there are two factors in pro- 
duction. Labor receives for its reward wages. 
Capital and the direction of capital receive as 
their reward profits. Socialists complain that 
capital secures the lion's share and leaves to labor 
a mere pittance. This is considered unjust, and 



26 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

Socialism proposes to institute an industrial sys- 
tem in which profits shall not be capitalized but 
become the reward of labor. In order to secure 
this new and improved distribution, it is pro- 
posed to put all business into the hands of Gov- 
ernment and thus to annihilate all private enter- 
prise and ail private capitalists: — 

In other words, we must have, instead of the 
present capitalistic and individualistic system of 
production and distribution, Governmental co-op- 
eration, Governmental productions and distribu- 
tions ; that is, that the whole people of a country, 
in their collective capacity, shall produce and 
distribute everything like a great joint-stock 
company, only infinitely wiser, stronger, and more 
competent. 

Not only should the Government, according to 
Socialism, control all the telegraphic lines and 
railroads, but it should build houses, establish 
shops, sell goods and manufacture everything 
that is produced. It should even own the land 
and manage agricultural production. No one 
should employ or be employed privately, but all 
should be the servants o£the State, which should 
manage everything in the interest of the public. 



By this means all monopolies would be 
avoided, all private wealth would be impossible, 
and a perfect and equitable distribution would be 
secured. No distinctions could then exist be- 
tween men. All would be well provided for, and 
equally. Poverty would be abolished, and while 
none would be rich in the present sense, all 
would be rich in a true and just sense, that is, all 
would possess a reasonable share of wealth. 

It is assumed that this great joint-stock com- 
pany WT>uld be managed in an infinite degree 
more wisely, strongly, and competently than joint- 
stock companies now are. The ground of this 
assumption is not stated. Let us inquire after 
the probable fact. 

It is plain that the new industrial system 
would not and could not abolish the distributive 
and regulative departments of society. It is 
sometimes quietly assumed that it would, but the 
assumption is entirely gratuitous. Distribution 
would have to take place, because the conditions 
of space require transportation and the necessi- 
ties of exchange involve the whole machinery of 
the market. The obnoxious class of middlemen 
could not, therefore, be annihilated. Indeed, the 



28 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

• 

class would be greatly increased, because, in addi- 
tion to the agents of distribution now employed, 
there would be needed a host of clerks to keep 
the Government accounts and manage the Gov- 
ernment administration of so vast an enterprise 
as the whole business of the country. Kor 
could the regulative class be abolished. In 
order to abolish it, human nature must undergo 
a radical transformation for whicli Socialism 
makes no provision. If human vice could be 
eradicated and human virtue made universal by 
some regenerative agency in society, this aboli- 
tion might take place, but Socialism has not yet 
indicated an y transforming motive that will thus 
change the nature of man. The expectation of ■ 
it is chimerical and belongs to the visions of 
dreamland. Hence all the regulative machinery 
of the present would have to be continued, and 
we shall show that it would have to be greatly 
increased. 

The proposed system would secure no element 
of economy. It is absurd to suppose that a cen- 
tral bureau could superintend the business of the 
whole country more efficiently than private capi- 
talists whose whole attention is given to the clos- 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 29 

est economy in the management of their private 
affairs. There would be wholly wanting, too, 
the powerful motive of self-interest that actuates 
men in the economical administration of their 
own business. Every official would feel in- 
clined to work as little and as easily as circum- 
stances would permit. If left to themselves the 
officials would degenerate into mere time-servers,, 
preferring their own ease to the public prosperi- 
ty. If placed nnder the espionage of detectives, 
they would not only feel a sense of degradation 
in being the objects of constant inquisition, but 
the public service in the regulative department 
would be vastly increased instead of diminished. 
In addition to this, we must take account of the 
rings that would be formed for purposes of mu- 
tual concealment and the increased opportunities 
that would be afforded for robbing the public 
treasury. 

There would be an incalculable loss also in the 
diminution of enterprise. It is impossible that a 
bureaucratic administration could be so alert as 
to equal private enterprise in facilitating produc- 
tion and securing remunerative results. We are 
informed by Studnitz that in 1878 he found the 



30 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

mills of New York standing idle, while those of 
Philadelphia were all in operation, and his ex- 
planation is that the former were under joint- 
stock management and the latter belonged to 
private owners. 

In the light of these considerations, it is evi- 
dent that better results could not be expected 
from the Governmental administration of the 
business of the country than from the present 
system of private management. 



VI. 

Socialistic Ideas of Waste. 

In the eyes of the social theorists who desire 
to regenerate human society, whole classes of 
men fall into the category of non-producers and 
are regarded as simply waste materials that 4 
might be utilized under the new system. " In 
the four professions of theology, law, physics, and 
war there are millions of the most intelligent, 
educated, and able-bodied men employed, for no 
purpose but to delude, rob, and murder their fel- 
lows." These men, after the capitalists, are the 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 31 

cause of the chief miseries of man. This is the 
style of reasoning in vogue with these Socialistic 
reformers : — 

V 

Socialism would abolish poverty by preventing 
it, by removing its causes. As poverty is the 
cause directly or indirectly of nearly all- crime, 
therefore, by the abolition of poverty, crime 
would become almost unknown, and with crime 
would disappear all the lice, leeches, vampires, 
and vermin that fatten on its filth ; such as the 
entire legal fraternity, soldiers, poliqe, spies, 
judges, sheriffs, priests, preachers, quack doctors, 
etc., etc. 

The Socialist thus makes war on the whole 
regulative class, for policemen, sheriffs, jailers, 
and judges are all included under the head of 
those who rob and murder their fellows. The 
reason of this terrible onslaught is that the regu- 
lative class stand in the way of the Socialistic in- 
surrection. The press, the pulpit, and the pro- 
fessor's chair are all equally obnoxious to these 
theorists, because they teach men to avoid the 
fallacies of the new social sect. 

This attack on the regulative class gives occa- 
sioif for pointing out what is quite easily over- 



32 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

looked — that members of this class are as really 
producers as the derivative and distributive classes 
in society. "We can best realize how essential 
each of the professional classes is to society, by 
examining; their functions in detail. 

Let us group preachers, teachers, authors, and 
editors under the head of the teaching corps of 
society. How do they aid production ? It is 
certain that production is increased by a knowl- 
edge of the moral and scientific conditions upon 
which it depends. Men need to be enlightened 
in respect to these conditions. Moral conditions 
have to be included, because they are real. The 
spirit men have toward one another, the sym- 
pathetic comprehension of others' aims and 
methods,' are quite essential to any true industrial 
progress. The preacher imparts to men through 
his teachings principles that lie at the foundation 
of civilization. If men once forgot them, there 
would be a dead halt in the march of humanity. 
Teachers, too, have their line of work in inform- 
ing the mind and training its faculties for intel- 
ligent action in the affairs of life. Authors and 
editors are useful to society in the enlighten- 
ment of men upon the subjects that most concern 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 33 

them, and which they could comprehend only 
through such aid. 

The stigmatized legal fraternity cannot be 
justly called a set of public robbers. # Members of 
the legal profession do, indeed, sometimes strive 
to defeat the ends of justice, but this is not the 
purpose of the legal profession. "What justice 
could one expect to secure at the hands of men if 
it were not for the organized courts and the legal 
counsel that are ready to procure justice for the 
defrauded ? Socialists talk as if all professional 
men were knaves and all non-professional men 
were angels. What would become of these same 
millions of " vampires and vermin," if the legal 
profession were abolished ? It is, indeed, sug- 
gested to dump them into the sea, but they are 
not so easily disposed of. Would they not still 
exist to harass the lives of innocent people, and 
with our whole regulative and protective system 
annihilated, where would the oppressed find 
refuge from these " vampires and vermin ? " 
The Socialist scheme hotly denounces society as 
infamously corrupt, and calmly assumes that after 
the inauguration of the Socialistic plan human 

nature would be so innocent and loving that no 
3 



34 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

regulative power would be needed among men. 
The very corruption it points out is the decisive 
refutation of its claim as a possible condition of 
human society. 

The medical profession includes many pre- 
tenders, and, unfortunately, it is difficult to dis- 
tinguish between the qualified and the unqualified 
members of the profession. And vet we owe a 
large debt to this intelligent class of men. The 
efficiency and the happiness of mankind would 
suffer a dreadful diminution if the medical pro- 
fession were to be suppressed for a single day. 
It is probable that no one class of men in all 
human occupations would be so quickly and so 
painfully missed. But to the Socialist they are 
mere waste. 

That the police force of society, whether 
military or civil, ought to be reduced to the 
minimum consistent with the effective protection 
of life and property, there can be no doubt. As 
men become better this class will be gradually 
reduced, as it has been in our country, without 
evil results. But to withdraw absolutely for one 
night the police force of 'New York City, for 
example, would be equivalent to a public and 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 35 

official invitation to wholesale robbery and mur- 
der. No well-informed man can have a mo- 
ment's doubt of this, and yet the Socialist regards 
the police of society the greatest waste of all. 

At a time when thousands of men can accept 
and believe such doctrines as the Socialists are 
diffusing through their propaganda, it is neces- 
sary to inculcate in the minds of the people 
sound doctrines regarding the value of the regu- 
lative class in society. It is this class, however, 
who constitute the chief enemy of Socialism. 



VIL 

The Iron Law of Wages. 

" "Working for wages," says the Socialist, " you 
are not a free man but a slave, and a slave that 
your employer despises and will get along with- 
out whenever he can." The best teachers have 
usually taught men that the laborer was worthy 
of his hire and that to take remuneration for work 
is not servitude but independence. The new 
teachers tell us, however, that it is mean and slav- 
ish to take wages. But they tell us also that 



36 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

labor itself is mean and low. " Toil, hard labor, 
drudgery is degrading, is dishonorable, is debas- 
ing — a horny hand is no badge of nobility, it is 
the mark, token, and sign of baseness." The 
workingman who holds this paper in his hardened 
hand is told by his friend, the Socialist, who ad- 
vises him not to take wages, that this hand is an 
indication of baseness. 

But if we are slaves when we take w r ages, what 
must we take to be freemen ? Why the capital 
earned by others, or the proceeds of that capital, 
says the Socialist. Do not take wages, that is 
base. Take your neighbor's property that he has 
basely earned by degrading toil, that is noble and 
independent and free. The conscience of the work- 
ingman will quickly teach him whether or not the 
Socialist is the right man to advise him what to do. 

But why not take wages ? Because of the Iron 
Law of Wages. And what is that ? It is : " The 
wages of a people are regulated by their habits of 
living y and these habits conform to the limits of 
existence a?idjjropagation." This is the Iron Law 
as stated by the Socialist. It certainly cannot be 
called the " iron law " because it is inflexible, for 
nothing could be more flexible. Wages are said 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 37 

to vary with the habits of the people, and these 
certainly vary considerably. But the law com- 
pletely misstates the truth. The wages of a peo- 
ple are so far from varying with the habits of a 
people that the habits of a people are fixed and 
determined by the wages they receive. Nor are 
wages limited by the limits of existence and prop- 
agation. They may fall so low that existence 
and propagation are impossible. Wipe out the 
capital of a country suddenly, or put it in great 
peril, so that it is obliged to take refuge some- 
where else for protection, and you will see wages 
fall so low that existence will be impossible on the 
basis of wages, and people will either fall upon the 
public charities for existence or they w T ill starve 
to death. No more absurd or false statement of 
the law of wages could be formulated than that 
advanced by Socialism. Habits conform to wages, 
not wages to habits, or it would be easy for the 
wage-receiving class to elevate their wages by 
habits of extravagance, which is simple nonsense. 
On what does the amount of wages depend ? 
Upon the profit of production. Why ? Because, 
when the profits of production are great, capital 
will rush into production and create a demand for 



58 "" PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

labor, and when the profits of production are 
small, capital will withdraw from production and 
the demand for labor will cease. 

Bat does not the increase of capital tend to de- 
press labor ? Quite the contrary, for as capital 
increases it is forced to enter the field of produc- 
tion in order to realize its own interest, and so 
must compete for labor, and the competition for 
labor raises its price. Labor thrives then as capi- 
tal thrives, and is depressed as capital is depressed. 

But as capital increases does it not gain more 
power to oppress labor and bring labor to a con- 
dition of servitude ? Yes, if it be so centralized 
that it can be controlled by a single man or a very 
few men. This must be conceded. But not if it 
is diffused. In this case it is brought into com- 
petition with itself. It can grow only bj alliance 
with labor, and if the supply of capital is great it 
will be compelled to bid against itself in the com- 
petition for labor, without which it must lie idle 
and be unproductive. 

The old " wage-fund theory " is exploded. 
Wages are not paid out of capital, but out of the 
products of industry. As profits increase the 
laborer's share increases. If not, it must be be- 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIE9 OF SOCIALISM. 39 

cause the share of capital is disproportionately in- 
creased. If it is and capital is abundant, capital 
will seek the increased profits and thus create a 
new demand for labor. Wages will vary, then, 
not according to any habits of life, but according 
to the profits of industry.. Whatever increases 
these profits increases wages. 

What, then, becomes of the " iron law " ? t No 
class of men can be held in this country to the 
condition of wage-workers. The margin of wages 
above the cost of living (the necessary cost with 
economy) is such as to enable the w T orkingman 
slowly to capitalize his surplus and thus pass into 
the class of capitalists. This is what present cap- 
italists or their ancestors have done in the past. 
This is what thonsapds are doing to-day and will 
do in the future. Nearly all the men of wealth 
in this land have been at one time wage-workers. 
They have felt no " iron law." It is true that 
something cannot be had for nothing, except in 
Utopia. It could not be had for nothing in the 
dreamland of the Socialists. Men would have to 
toil and wear horny hands even in that social para- 
dise. The reason of it is that labor is the source 
of all wealth and without it there is no wealth. 



40 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

VIII. 

The Aristocracy of Labor. 

" If there is one thing more than another which 
disgusts the sincere social reformer," says the 
Socialist, " it is an aristocracy of labor." By 
this is meant that one occupation is as worthy of 
reward as another and in the same degree, not 
that all labor is honorable and that all honest la- 
borers are to be equally respected. The distinc- 
tion between skilled and unskilled labor is denied. 
"The man who is skilled in the chicanery of the 
produce market or at the mechanic's bench, is un- 
skilled with the shovel, the pick, and the work at 
the transportation dock." Wages should be equal 
for all, without distinction. Each man should be 
rewarded for the time and energy he puts into 
work, not for any skill he may naturally possess 
or have acquired in the execution of work. 

The Socialists propose to issue dollars repre- 
senting one hundred minutes of time. One of 
these is to be given to every one who works one 
hundred minutes. There is to be no bargaining 
for wages. There is to be no agreement as to the 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 41 

quality of work. Every worker is to have his 
dollar on his hundred minutes of time. 

The proposition is almost too absurd for serious 
treatment, and yet wiser men than these theorists 
have advocated something like it. John Kuskin, 
whose wisdom in economic matters may, however, 
be questioned, defends equal pay for men doing 
the same kind of work, regardless of quality. 
But here we have a complete failure to discern 
the element of value in personal service. It is 
not the energy put forth. The question is not 
one of quantity, whether of time or strength, but 
of quality. The true measure of wages is social 
utility. This may need some explanation, in 
order to unfold the meaning of terms. 

Why should the stone-breaker on a railroad 
receive less money for his time than the engineer 
of a train, and the engineer than the president of 
the company? It is not because it costs more 
effort to preside over the affairs of the company ; 
it is not because it costs more effort to run the 
the train." So far as the putting forth of measur- 
able energy goes, the order of rewards ought to 
be reversed, for the stone-breaker puts forth more 
foot-pounds of force than the other two. It is 



42 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

not a complete answer to say that the cost of 
preparation is the measure of reward and that 
the engineer must be paid for the time used in 
learning to manage an engine, and the president 
for the time spent in learning to preside over a 
railroad's affairs. The true answer is this : the 
service of each man is paid according to its worth 
to the comp'any. If the stone-breaker will not 
work, others will take his place for what he re- 
ceives. If the engineer will not work, others will 
take his place for what he receives. - But the en- 
gineer will not work for what the stone-breaker 
receives. Why not ? Because lid can get more 
for his service. Why can he get more ? Because 
others are willing to pay more. Why are they 
willing to pay more ? Because his service has a 
higher quality than that of the other man. In 
what does this quality consist ? In elements of 
knowledge, skill, and judgment, in power to do 
safely and certainly what the other cannot do 
safely and certainly. Put the stone-breaker in 
charge of the engine and there would be a de- 
structive accident. Put the engineer in charge 
of the president's business and there would be un- 
skilful management of the company's affairs, in- 



PRINCIPLES ANT) FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 43 

volving loss and possible bankruptcy. It may be 
settled as certain that the company would not pay 
the engineer anv more than the stone- breaker if 
it could hire him for the same. 

Service has social utility in proportion as it 
rises in the scale of skill and efficiency. The 
stone-breaker is little more than a machine, so 
far as his occupation goes. A machine could be 
invented to take his place. As power advances 
from the merely physical to the intellectual and 
moral, it becomes more valuable. Why has an 
ounce of quinine more value than an ounce of 
wheat? Because it possesses curative powers 
that the wheat does not possess. Its value lies 
in its quality. It is as reasonable to propose that 
all substances shall be sold at the same price per 
pound, as to propose to reward men for the time 
they spend, without regard to the quality of the 
work they do. 

The Socialistic proposition, if carried into effect, 
would prevent all progress in the acquisition of 
skill and the development of high grades of social 
utility. iSo one would study and contrive if he 
were to receive no reward for the results of his 
labors. Society would be reduced to a dead level 



44 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

of incapability, and pre-eminence in skill would 
not be sought after. Every motive for improve- 
ment being taken away, improvement itself would 
cease and the race would remain stagnant 

It is precisely because of the ascending scale 
of rewards that wage- workers have hope of bet- 
terment. By means of education and technical 
skill they may rise from the lowest ranks to the 
highest. There is constant inspiration and there 
is reward for every new accomplishment. There 
is at present a market for any form of power that 
men possess. The effort of men who are low in 
the industrial scale, should be to rise higher in 
it by securing education and acquiring trades. 
The destruction of present conditions would be 
the extinguishment of all that Socialists desire, 
the possession of the good things of life. Merit 
and efficiency would be without reward, and, un- 
rewarded, they would cease to be. . 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 45 

IX. 

What is Cost ? 

Socialism advances the doctrine that " cost is 
the limit of price," and argues from this that all 
that is meant by the word " profits " is robbery, 
being an excess demanded above what price 
should be. It is held that the laborer is cheated, 
because price at present includes certain "prof- 
its" that are in reality a tax on the working 
class levied by the trading class. Let us inquire 
what cost involves. 

Labor alone is utterly helpless, it cannot pro- 
duce anything. Without farms, tools, or facto- 
ries, it would starve to death without being able 
to produce any form of wealth. Capital, the 
product of pre-exerted industry, is necessary in 
conjunction with labor, in order that production 
may take place. The cost of an article is, there- 
fore, the cost of labor and the cost of capital 
combined. 

The cost of labor is made up of three elements. 
These are, first, the efficiency of the labor. Two 
men may be able to do the same work as three 



46 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

other men, because of their superior strength or 
skill. Tims two well-fed English navvies are 
equal to three poorly-fed French navvies. It is 
cheaper to pay the strong men $1.40 per day 
each than to pay. the weak men $1.00 a day 
each. Hence, secondly, we must include the 
nominal wages paid. Thirdly, it makes a differ- 
ence in what the wages are paid. If money is 
very hard to secure, it is very difficult to pay 
wages which, if money w T ere abundant, might 
be easily paid. If goods are taken instead of 
money, higher wages can easily be paid. 

The cost of capital is now to be considered. 
This involves three elements also. There is the 
rate per cent, paid for money used in the payment 
of wages. Secondly, there is the time for which 
the money is used. The cost to capital is in- 
creased when products must be kept for a long 
time before they can be sold. Thirdly, there is 
the liability of capital to wear out. Buildings 
and machinery must be insured, and the cost of 
wear must be calculated, for in time they must 
be replaced. 

But we have not completed the analysis of the 
cost of an article. The person who brings labor 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 47 

and capital together expends time, labors to effect 
his combinations, and suffers risks of loss by 
changes in the markets. He must be paid for 
his time and trouble and risk. It is here that 
" profits " emerge. The remuneration of enter- 
prise is found in what is called " profits." These 
are the natural and legitimate reward of the per- 
son who carries on the business. They enter 
rightly into the final cost of an article to the 
consumer. But we are not yet done. If the 
article is transported, the charges of transporta- 
tion must be paid. The dealer pays these to- 
gether with the cost of the article up to the time 
when it is shipped from the manufacturer. He 
must keep his purchases and pay interest on his 
investment until a purchaser comes, and, if he 
grants credit, still longer. For his time and 
labor and risk he also must be rewarded. All 
these elements enter into the legitimate cost of 
every manufactured article. Admitting that cost 
is the limit of price, the price should be made to 
include all these elements of actual cost, for they 
are real, and not artificial. 

The Socialist is not able to annihilate these 
elements of cost by the means he would employ 



48 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

to reduce price. He would . have all the " prof- 
its " shared by the Government and he would 
have the Government pay all the costs of pro- 
duction. We have shown that this would not 
leave any balance in favor of the people. The 
cost of production would be actually increased. 
Why ? Because all the present elements of cost 
would enter into the price of the- article and 
could not be eliminated. Labor and capital and 
enterprise w r ould still enter in as factors, trans- 
portation and dealers would still be necessary. 
Besides, the labor would not be so efficient, for 
it would be paid in the time-money of Socialism 
that makes no distinction for merit ; capital 
would still have its claim, no matter if the Gov- 
ernment did own it, for the Government might 
put it out at interest to another Government and 
thus earn interest on it ; so interest would have 
still to be counted as an element in the cost of 
production, and, most important of all, the econ- 
omy and enterprise of private management 
would 'be superseded by the waste and slackness 
of Government management, so that the pay of 
officials would exceed the " profits " of private 
management. 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 49 

It is very evident that the competition of trade 
is the effective reducer of price. It is a constant 
and heavy weight that is ever compressing the 
cost of production to its minimum. 



X. 

Socialistic Ideas of Money. 

Among the delusions of Socialism is the doc- 
trine of flat money, or money which has only a 
conventional and not a natural value. It is pro- 
posed that Government, that is, the association of 
people who would constitute the Socialistic State, 
shall issue token money, each dollar of which shall 
represent 100 minutes of time, and that the 
amount shall be equal to $100 for each person. 
Here is the argument against precious metallic 
money : 

The money, or medium of exchange, should be 
manufactured of the most convenient, economical, 
and durable material to be had, and not of gold, 
silver, or other scarce and valuable metal. So 
long as the medium of exchange is gold and sil- 
ver, it is liable to be monopolized by a few, who 
4 



50 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

can thus enslave the many. Under the present 
system an individual party can control the medium 
of exchange — lias virtually a monopoly of the 
means of life in every department. 

The two functions of money are to serve as a 
standard of value and as a medium of exchange. 
Money must be a standard of value, in order to 
be a medium of exchange. When a man ex- 
changes a commodity for money, it is not the 
money that he wants, but other forms of value 
that money will procure. It is through the me- 
dium of money that he translates his products into 
the products of others which he wishes in ex- 
change. Gold has, as nearly as anything on -the 
earth, a fixed and unchangeable value. If this 
seems not to be true because of the so-called 
fluctuations of gold in the market when green- 
backs were not payable in gold, it is only neces- 
sary to remember that it was the greenbacks that 
really fluctuated in value, as public confidence rose 
or fell in the National ability to redeem green- 
backs in gold. When the prospects that the 
greenbacks would be paid in gold were good, 
greenbacks and gold came more nearly into a re- 
lation of equivalence. This was expressed in the 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 51 

market as a falling of gold, because greenbacks 
were legal tender, whereas it was really a rising 
in greenbacks. The reason why gold is the best 
standard is that its quantity cannot be quickly in- 
creased or diminished and the annual production 
of it is an equable growth, keeping pace with the 
growing needs from increase of population. Sil- 
ver is discovered in such great quantities as to 
produce sudden changes in the amount in market, 
and therein fails to serve the purposes of a rela- 
tively inflexible standard. An elastic yard-stick 
could not serve as a standard of measure, because 
a yard would at one time mean one thing and at 
another time another. 

The Socialistic fiat money would utterly fail in 
the performance of the functions of money for 
two reasons. The first of these is that it would 
have no natural value. Gold does have such 
natural value. It is acceptable in exchange any- 
where in the world and always will be, because it 
possesses this natural value. If the fiat money 
were instantly redeemable in gold, it would have 
value just in proportion to the probability that 
this redemption could be consummated at the 
wish of the holder. As long as greenbacks, for 



52 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

example, are convertible into gold, they pass as the 
equivalents of gold. But when it was doubtful 
whether- they could be thus converted into gold, 
their value fluctuated with the public expectation 
of their convertibility. The Socialistic proposition 
does not involve any promise by any trustworthy 
debtor to pay for what is surrendered for the fiat 
money. It ceases to have value as a note, because 
it does not assume the responsibility of payment 
in commodities. For this reason" it would be 
utterly worthless. 

The fiat money of Socialism possesses none of 
the qualities of a standard. It represents one 
hundred minutes of time. Of whose time ? Time 
has no value apart from the amount and kind of 
service rendered in a given amount of time. The 
assumption of Socialism is that all men's time is 
equally valuable. This is false. There are no 
realizable human conditions under which the as- 
sumption could be true. Time is a mere relation 
of succession between events. Its standard of 
measurement is the day, or revolution of the earth 
on its axis. A fiat dollar of the Socialistic type 
means simply the fraction of a day. Of what use 
is this to me ? ISTobody promises to give me any- 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 53 

thing, if I take this meaningless token. But, says 
the Socialist, the Government will compel any 
man to give you one hundred minutes of his time 
for it. This involves an unjust enforcement. It 
means that the Government can force me to give 
one hundred minutes of my time for one hundred 
minutes of another man's time. This is a viola- 
tion of my freedom. It makes me the slave of 
the Government. It removes all personal inde- 
pendence and all desire for skill and efficiency. 
If I can get a dollar for one hundred minutes of 
my time, no matter what I do in that time, I will 
probably care very little whether my service has 
any intrinsic value or not. The whole scheme is 
thus reduced to an absurdity that does not merit 
the serious attention of a thoughtful man. ♦ 



XL 

The Attack on the National Banks, 

It is a part of the Socialistic creed that the 
National banks ought to be suppressed. It is not 
the first time that these institutions have been 
attacked, and it is important that their value and 



54 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

services should be remembered when their exist- 
ence is called in question, even though it be only 
by the propaganda of a sect of theoretical re- 
formers. 

Here is the indictment brought against the 
system : 

A capitalist desires to get something for noth- 
ing. He establishes a National bank. He has 
$100,000. With this he buys $100,000 worth of 
bonds, goes with them to Washington, and de- 
posits them. Upon these bonds the Government 
issues to him 90 per cent., or $90,000," in currency 
for circulation. Now, let us see what he can do. 

With this $90,000, following out the same 
principle, we will say that he buys $90,000 worth 
more of bonds and deposits them, receiving upon 
them for circulation 90 per cent, of their value, 
or $81,000. 

He continues this process of buying bonds, de- 
positing them, receiving 90 per cent, of their 
value, and again purchasing and depositing, until 
his capital is exhausted. 

All this seems to have been written without 
the reflection that it does not actually take place 
and cannot. In order to establish a National 
bank, it is necessary to find a place where the 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 55 

business of banking will pay. The amount of 
capital is then fixed by law and the total circula- 
tion is again fixed by law. These limitations 
preclude the handling of capital in the way de- 
scribed. 'The 90 per cent, of notes received on 
the deposit of bonds is put into circulation in the 
community where the bank is located, and not 
returned to the Government for more bonds and 
the establishment of new banks. It might as 
well be argued that one could buy a piece of land 
and mortgage it, buy more land with the money 
thus received, and so on indefinitely to the limit 
of possibility, and that thus the ownership of* a 
township might pass into the hands of one or 
two men. The idea of repeating investments in 
this manner is not carried out in the business 
world as it is in the brain of a theorist, for the 
reason that it is impracticable as a matter of fact. 
We must not forget the circumstances under 
which the bonds of the Government were first 
issued and taken by the National banks. It was 
a time when the banking system, if it may be 
called " system," was utterly chaotic. Those 
who recall the difficulties that beset the traders 
of that day, will never wish to reinstate a condi- 



56 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

tion of affairs such as existed when no one knew 
what the value of his money was a hundred miles 
from home, and often had to be plucked by dis- 
counts until he missed all his calculations of ex- 
penditure. Again, it was a time of extreme 
National peril. The success of the Nation in 
subduing rebellion was problematical. The Na- 
tional credit was at a low ebb. It required great 
courage at that time to take the Government 
promises to pay. The National honor had not 
then had its complete vindication, and all the 
tremulous period of discussion about repudiation 
had to be passed through. In the meantime, 
the men who established the National banking 
system had the faith to invest in the Government 
securities and to establish a system of banking 
that has carried us successfully through one of 
the greatest financial crises that has ever been ex- 
perienced in the history of the world, without the 
loss of a dollar to the holder of a National bank- 
note. 

It was this system that enabled the Govern- 
ment to return to specie payments, the restora- 
tion of the money of the world, upon which our 
industrial and foreign interests so largely de- 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 57 

pended. We Lave learned by experience how 
very dangerous it is to abandon a metallic basis 
of currency and deal in a fluctuating standard. 
That was the real cause of the great financial 
trouble of 1873, and there was no human power 
that could avert it. 

To-day we have a system that is not costly to 
the Government, inasmuch as the National debt 
is now bearing a very low rate of interest. If 
the debt were paid, it would take so much out of 
the pockets of the people, where it is worth more 
than the three and a half per cent, paid by the 
Government. That is, the people pay three and 
a half per cent, on the debt rather than pay the 
debt when money is worth to them, the whole 
country through, perhaps twice this percentage. 
Is that such dreadful economy ? 

It may be said, pay off the whole debt in 
greenbacks. This simply means, take up in- 
terest-bearing notes and pay them off in notes 
without interest and destroy the best banking 
system we have ever had. This would be neither 
honorable nor expedient. Not honorable, be- 
cause the Government has no right to give notes 
without interest for notes bearing interest, with- 



58 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

out asking if they are acceptable. Not expedi- 
ent, because it would abolish an almost perfect 
system of banks, and inundate the country with 
an excess of paper promises to pay which the 
Government is not prepared to redeem in gold, 
and cannot justly refuse to redeem, if redemption 
is demanded. 



XII. 

Socialistic Ideas of the State. 

Society has two functions with reference to its 
individual members. One is the economic, or 
industrial, which relates to the personal pros- 
perity of the individual and the increase of his 
wealth ; the other is the political, or govern- 
mental, relating to the protection of the rights of 
the individual and his regulation in relation to 
others. Do both of these functions belong 
equally to the State ? Should the State have 
the same interest in providing for the personal 
wants of its citizens as it has in protecting them 
from injury and injustice? Socialism replies, 
the State should provide for all the wants of an 
individual and manage his use of his time and 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 59 

his rewards for his labor just as completely as it 
should furnish him protection when his rights 
are invaded. This is the very essence of Social- 
ism, as contrasted with individualism. The State 
supersedes the individual, completely controls 
him, treats him as a part of itself and must pro- 
vide for him. 

This notion goes back to Rousseau's idea of 
the nature of civil society and the " social con- 
tract." Individuals in civilized society have con- 
tracted with one another to surrender to the 
State those rights which were originally theirs in 
a condition of nature. The State, Socialism de- 
clares, must reciprocate by doing for the indi- 
vidual what he cannot do for himself, and taking 
complete charge of him. It would be difficult to 
point out by whom this contract was made, when 
and where. It is clear enough to any one who 
will reflect, that this contract was never made at 
all. Men are born into the State and find them- 
selves under the protection of its laws and in 
organic relations with society. They may be- 
come outlaws, if they choose, but at the peril of 
losing all the advantages which organized society 
affords. 



60 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

Socialism refuses to leave the individual to 
himself. It proposes to control him entirely, 
nolens volens. It proposes to say to him, You 
must work for so much and possess so much. 
More you cannot receive and more you shall not 
receive. It sweeps away at once all that is in- 
volved in personal liberty. It will admit nothing 
private. You must share everything with your 
fellows, according to their dictation. 

In opposition to this our accepted form of 
Government says, You are free to do what you 
will and for whom you will, and no one shall 
compel you. You may labor at what you like as 
long as you like and for any reward you agree to 
take. You may bargain for yourself and have 
and enjoy the results of your toil and your trans- 
actions. But you must keep j T our contracts, you 
must do what you promise to do, you must re- 
gard the equal freedom of others to do what they 
like with their own. Every one is free and you 
must not interfere with anyone's free movements 
or free exercise of his powers or the products, of 
of his powers. If he toils and saves the result of 
his toiling, the toiler may do just what he likes 
to do with his own. Life, liberty, and the pur- 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 61 

suit of happiness will be protected, and if you in- 
vade another man's freedom you must answer for 
it and pay the penalty at the hands of the law. 

Which is the true conception of the State ? 

Socialism reduces the citizens of a State to 
servitude. It strips all of liberty and rules all by 
the collective weight of the public will. All in- 
dependence is suppressed. All spontaneity is 
destroyed. Take the place assigned you in the 
ranks and do as you are bidden. You cannot 
escape. Your personal will is nothing. You are 
the child of the public. You shall be fed and 
clothed, not as you please, but as the State wills. 
There is no escape for you. Left to yourself, 
you might gain much more, you might possess 
much more, but you shall not be left to your- 
self. Y r ou can earn more in a hundred min- 
utes of time than another man, if you have free 
competition, but you must take a time-dollar, 
which is worth a hundred minutes of another 
man's time who cannot do what you can or do it 
so well. You must not rebel. This is justice. 

Men hate a tyrant, whether he be a single 
man, a corporation of men, or collective human- 
ity. They would feel the yoke as heavily if it 



62 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

were placed upon their shoulders by the Great 
Public, as if it were placed there by one strong 
man whom they would call an autocrat. Noth- 
ing is so unfavorable to manhood as compulso- 
ry action. It takes out of life the freedom 
which alone makes life endurable and virtue pos- 
sible. No matter how well men were housed 
and clothed and fed, once under the thraldom of 
the Great Public, they would rise with indigna- 
tion and throw off the shackles, if they went 
back to the open fields and rags and husks. The 
Socialistic system would crush out all manhood, 
if it could be once introduced and enforced. But 
while there is a spirit of freedom in men it 
never can be introduced or enforced. 



XIII. 
Socialism and Democracy. 

Socialism claims to be a movement in the in- 
terest of the people, but it is far from being dem- 
ocratic. Alexis De Tocqueville, the author of 
" Democracy in America," said in a speech in the 
Republican Parliament of France in 1849, "De- 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 63 

mocracy extends the sphere of individual inde- 
pendence, Socialism contracts it. Democracy 
gives every individual man his utmost possible 
value, Socialism makes every man an agent, an 
instrument, a cipher. 'Democracy and Socialism 
coincide only in the single word, equality ; but 
observe the difference. Democracy desires equal- 
ity in liberty ; Socialism seeks equality in com- 
pulsion and servitude." De Tocqueyille, of 
course, does not use the word " Democracy " in 
any partisan sense. 

These are weighty words and indicate a true 
apprehension of the aims of Socialism. Socialism 
desires the equality of all the citizens in the State, 
but it is a form of equality that excludes liberty. 
The will of the individual is overruled at every 
point by the restrictions of the system. Liberty 
is utterly incompatible with the Socialistic idea. 
It is the liberty of the present that is so hateful 
to Socialism. Its ambition is to restrain this 
liberty, to substitute for it an order in which 
there shall be compulsion, in which every man 
shall be forced to take for his services what the 
State consents to let him have, not what he is 
willing to take. 



64 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

Democracy pivots itself upon liberty. The 
wrong against which it is the revolt, is repression. 
It hates tyranny and loves freedom. It has 
fought for freedom. It values freedom more 
than all else. It regards with jealous eyes all the 
encroachments of centralization, all the advances 
of power that narrow the sphere of the individual. 
It will submit to no dictation. It will consent to 
no infringement of rights. It is willing to run 
the risk of starving, if only it may be free to sell 
what it can produce in a free market It knows 
well that if let alone it can subsist and realize its 
ambitions. Hence, it can form no alliance with 
Socialism. Socialism is its greatest enemy, for 
aristocracy and royalty are in our country only 
reminiscences, memories of other times, subdued 
and discomfited foes. Socialism rises up to con- 
tradict the doctrines and reverse the victories of 
Democracy. 

It is easy to see why Socialism is more popular 
in Europe than in America. In Europe the 
governments are mostly monarchical, or lately 
have been, so that the traditions and conceptions 
of the State are founded on that form of govern- 
ment. The monarchy is essentially paternal. It 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 65 

assumes command and guardianship over the 
people. It undertakes to administer their affairs. 
Bismarck, for example, distinctly avows this prin- 
ciple, lie advocates the governmental adminis- 
tration of private affairs. This is essential to a 
really central and strong monarchical government. 
The people of Europe think of government as 
essentially charged with these functions of over- 
sight and direction, because they have been ac- 
customed to these in their experience. What 
they object to is the administration of a sovereign. 
They want to displace the one ruler by a popular 
representation, to substitute the will of the Great 
Public for the will of a ruler. 

In America the opposite conditions exist. We 
have lived so long under a democratic form of 
government that we have no such conceptions 
of government as European peoples have. We 
have come to consider its functions as protective, 
not directive. We want protection in acting 
freely, but we do not want compulsion of action 
and we will not endure it. 

Let not Socialism be mistaken by the oppressed 

as a movement in the direction of freedom. It is 

not. It proposes a new servitude. ^ It appears to 
5 



66 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

the laboring classes, however, as their liberator. 
It claims to be an insurrection against tyranny. 
But how would it liberate? " It proposes to liber- 
ate the poor man from poverty by robbing the 
rich man and giving his possessions to the poor. 
What will happen when this is accomplished? 
All will be restrained from the acquisition and 
possession of w r ealth. All must live according to 
the dictation of the State. Socialism proposes 
the liberty of a mob in order to institute a new 
and bitter servitude. It is not a real but a ficti- 
tious liberty, not a continuous but an evanescent 
liberty, which Socialism proposes. 

Do workingmen want to do wrong in order to 
establish right ? Do they want to overthrow the 
liberty that exists in order to institute a servitude 
that is not ? No, it is not the workingmen who 
want this. It is not honest and industrious men 
who want it. It is restless reformers, social mal- 
contents, idle men without earnings or the desire 
to work, who want it. It is those who call the 
horny hand of toil the " badge of dishonor," who 
look with longing eyes upon the accumulated 
treasures garnered by honest industry, and would 
break through the hedges of law and justice and 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 67 

help themselves, who want it. These are few in 
number and relatively impotent in our great in- 
dustrial multitude, the majority of whom are 
cheerfully busy in earning their living by honest 
toil and prudent saving. 



XIY. 

The Distribution of "Wealth. 

The most potent stimulant to Socialistic revo- 
lution is the uneven distribution of wealth. The 
fact of its uneven distribution cannot be denied. 
The justice of it can in part be defended, but only 
in part. As long as men differ in capacity and 
willingness to do the work that has to be done in 
the world, there will be inequalities in the distri- 
bution of the good things of life. The constitu- 
tion of society would be anything but ethical if it 
were not so. Energy and enterprise ought to be 
rewarded and idleness and conservatism ought to 
be rebuked. And vet, after all has been said 
that can be said, it must be allowed that there is 
room for improvement in the conditions of so- 



68 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

ciety affecting the apportionment of rewards for 
service. 

Admitting the imperfection of the present so- 
cial condition, it is worth while to ask if there is 
not some way of betterment without accepting all 
that Socialism involves. There seems to us to be 
several remedies which, taken together, will do 
more to remove real inequality where inequality 
is unjust, than the recommendations of Socialism. 

The first remedy is education. By this is 
meant, not merely literary training of general en- 
lightenment, such as the ordinary schools impart, 
but education in its broader sense, including in- 
dustrial, technical, and artistic education. There 
are thousands of wage- workers who could improve 
their condition and enjoy a larger share in the 
wealth of the world, if they were able to offer in 
the world's market a higher form of service. It 
is a necessary consequence of the discovery of 
physical forces and their adaptation to production 
by the invention of machinery, that mere muscular 
force should have a relatively smaller value than 
before such discoveries and inventions were made. 
It is true that even the lowest forms of labor are 
better rewarded to-day than they were before the 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 69 

introduction of machinery, because the extent of 
production has relatively cheapened all products. 
This enables all to enjoy many things that were 
formerly beyond the reach of nearly all. But 
personal service must have something about it 
superior to muscular power in order to com- 
mand a high price in the market. Hence educa- 
tion, not only of the brain, but of the hand, the 
eye, and the whole nervous system, so as to realize 
what is called skill, is necessary. For those pos- 
sessing skill the conditions of life are not usually 
distressing, unless they are made so by inefficient 
statesmanship, throwing the social mechanism 
out of gear. 

A second remedy is co-operation. The com- 
plaint of Socialism is that " profits," instead of 
going to labor, go to capital. It is clear from the 
, analysis of production that they must go to capi- 
tal and the management of capital as their natural 
rewards. But they may go to laborers, if they 
will become capitalists and managers. They may 
become such by union and thus secure to them- 
selves the advantages which Socialism proposes. 
Co-operation has been successfully tried and is 
not impossible. It involves economy, prudence, 



70 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

knowledge, and enterprise, but these have always 
been necessary. They have been furnished 
hitherto mainly by those whom Socialists stigma- 
tize as the robbers of labor. If laborers only try 
to manage business undertakings for themselves, 
they will soon find how valuable are those services 
which are necessary to make their labor produc- 
tive. They .will then realize the justice of reward- 
ing this factor in production and the injustice of 
representing it as the enemy of labor. 

A third remedy is combination. By this we 
mean the formation of associations for the protec- 
tion of labor, as companies are formed for the pro- 
tection of capital, not for the instigation of 
strikes and systematic antagonism to capital, but 
for the promotion of the true interests of the dif- 
ferent trades. How tyrannical and injurious such 
associations can be, experience has abundantly 
shown. How helpful and progressive they might 
be, intelligence readily suggests. 

A fourth remedy is the suppression of monopo- 
lies. This must proceed through legislative chan- 
nels. That it can be effectual in a country having 
elective legislatures, frequently changed by direct 
vote of the people, is evident. All monopolies 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 71 

are hostile to the popular interest. The people 
can suppress them, if they choose. They can do 
it as effectually through the instrumentality of the 
existing State as they could through the Socialis- 
tic State. 

These four remedies, faithfully applied, will 
remove all the inequalities in the distribution 
of wealth that are not right and natural, grow- 
ing out of the inequalities of efficiency and in- 
dustry among men. 



XV. 

Great Fortunes. 



Great fortunes are inconsistent with the equit- 
able distribution of wealth, but there are legit- 
imate means by which the accumulation of great 
fortunes may be -prevented without the institu- 
tion of the Socialistic State. In order to realize 
the truth of this statement it is necessary to con- 
sider how great fortunes are usually acquired. 

It is true that a few fortunes of considerable 
magnitude have been acquired by legitimate 
business enterprise, and yet so sudden and incal- 



72 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

culable are business reverses that it is not proba- 
ble that many vast accumulations of money can 
be gathered and retained for a long period of 
time by ordinary business, without the continu- 
ous possession of financial qualities that are not 
likely to remain in the same family for many 
generations. In cases where these qualities are 
found, fortune is their natural and legitimate re- 
ward. The laws of heredity are unquestionable, 
but the forms of heredity are undergoing con- 
stant modification. A man who has inherited 
from his parents good business faculties, industry 
and frugality, may amass considerable wealth in 
a single lifetime. But his children, although 
they may inherit certain forms of ability, have 
another inheritance that neutralizes the inherit- 
ance of money and ability very effectually. 
They are not likely to inherit either the habits 
of industry or the practical frugality of their 
parents, but, in place of these, personal irrespon- 
sibility and luxury of living which disqualify 
them for the perpetuation and increase of in- 
herited wealth. Wealthy fathers have no greater 
solicitude than the training of their sons in 
habits of labor and economy. They usually 



fail, and the succeeding generations are not able 
to retain what their ancestors have transmitted. 

But the majority of great fortunes are not pro- 
cured in this way. They are attained either by 
the chance discovery of wealth in minerals or 
other resources of nature to which their finders 
become entitled by right of discovery, or by 
manipulations of markets in the hazardous en- 
terprises of gambling. In both cases the dissi- 
pation of fortune is likely to occur, either by the 
ordinary means already indicated, or by the 
attempt to extend fortune by the hazardous 
methods in which it was obtained. 

It is necessary here to remember that, after 
all, the speculation in railroad and mining stocks 
is not so great an evil to the laboring classes as 
it is usually represented to be. Railroads and 
mining plants are real forms of property which 
are not annihilated by the transfer of stock. 
Stocks are simply representative. The actual 
work of companies is seldom interfered with dis- 
astrously by the operations going on in the trans- 
fer of stock. It matters little to the general 
public who owns the stock so long as the roads 
are run and the mines are worked, and it is 



74: PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 



fs for the interest of the owners, who- 
ever they may be, that these should be in opera- 
tion. Men make and lose fortunes in a day, but 
this is a matter of small account to the masses of 
men. It is, after all, often simply the transfer 
of ownership on the books of a stock exchange, 
without any interference with the actual course of 
industry. The people who are really injured 
are those who own the stocks and dispose of 
them in such a way as to lose money by their 
transaction. If the stocks were quietly held 
they could not be gambled with in the market. 
The important thing is that in the formation of 
companies, stock should be so placed as to keep it 
out of the hands of gamblers. This is a matter 
for the administration of companies to look 
after. 

If, for example, Jay Gould gets the advantage 
of William Vanderbilt in the sale or purchase 
of railroad stocks, it may matter as little to the 
general public as it would if the one had beaten 
the other at a game of chess. It is true that 
there are some instances where this is not the 
case. Innocent holders of stock may suffer loss 
through the operations of stock gamblers who 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 75 

bear their stock down to a low figure, then buy 
it up and hold it at a high figure. This may all 
be corrected, however, without the resort to gov- 
ernmental control of railroads. The stock may 
be so kept, the transfers so reported, the sales so 
conditioned and limited, that secret operations 
cannot take place. It is in the power of the 
stockholders themselves thus to secure their 
rights. 

What the business world requires is more in- 
telligent regulation of business under improved 
legislation, in order to secure the interests of 
small capitalists against the cunning and rapacity 
of great capitalists. There is no method of 
knavery so intricate that it cannot be met with a 
check, if only the same intelligence is exercised 
in preventing it that is employed in perpetrating 
it. Just and equal laws can be framed and exe- 
cuted, if the people only determine resolutely 
that they shall be. The remedy for inequality 
in the distribution of wealth, therefore, is to be 
found in the perfection of legislation and com- 
mercial methods rather than in a social revolu- 
tion. 



76 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

XVI. 
Wealth and Want. 

It is frequently assumed that with the increase 
of wealth there is a corresponding increase of 
want. The mistake is crystallized in the expres- 
sion, " The tendency of the rich to grow richer, 
and of the poor to grow poorer." ]S T o one has 
contributed more to the diffusion of this errone- 
ous idea than Henry George, whose celebrated 
book on " Progress and Poverty " adopts this 
error as its fundamental assumption. In stating 
the economic problem with which he proposes to 
deal, that writer says : u I propose to seek the 
law which associates poverty with progress and 
increases want with advancing wealth." 

If the assumption were really true, statistics 
would show either a progressive falling of wages, 
marking the increasing inability of wage-workers 
to secure the necessaries of life, or the increase 
of pauperism, indicating the growth of a class of 
the population wholly unable to obtain the means 
of living. An appeal to the statistics the world 
over proves the error of the assumption. There 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 77 

lias been for the last three centuries a gradual 
increase in the value of a day's labor, not only in 
money, but in the commodities obtainable with 
the money earned by the laborer in a day. In- 
deed, it is in the last respect particularly that 
the increase has been made. The introduction 
of machinery and the division of labor into 
specialties, supposed to have the effect of lower- 
ing the laborer's condition, has tended to cheapen 
manufactured articles of all kinds. It is now 
possible for the humblest toiler to possess and 
enjoy articles which only a few decades ago were 
wholly unknown, except in the homes of the 
wealthy. The laborer is better housed, better 
clothed, and better fed than at any previous 
period in the history of the world. There has 
been also a marked decrease of pauperism. In 
1688 the percentage of paupers in England was 
nearly three times what it is at present. The 
diminution of pauperism is owing .to both ma- 
terial and moral causes, there being less physical 
cause for it and a growing discountenancing of it. 
In addition to these evidences that want is not 
increasing with the accumulation of wealth, the 
diminution of the death-rate and the increase of 



78 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

longevity count for something. These are symp- 
tomatic of a progressive movement in the con- 
dition of all classes, and are, of course, the results 
of material conditions involved in the better re- 
muneration of labor. 

But even Henry George quietly abandons 
his own theory in the course of his work. He 
says that he uses the " word wages, not in the 
sense of a quantity, but in the sense of a propor- 
tion." By this he means that want is not ab- 
solutely increasing but only relatively, that is, the 
laborer gets less for his toil than- formerly in 
proportion to w T hat others receive. This is prob- 
ably true, but it is not the great misfortune that 
is the subject of complaint in parts of his volume 
and that provokes so much denunciation on the 
part of certain reformers of social conditions. It 
is a fact to be expected in the actual constitution 
of things and could hardly be eliminated from 
any condition of society. The laborer's personal 
contribution is of such a nature and of such im- 
portance, that his share in the general progress 
cannot be measured by the share accorded to 
others. In labor, as such, there is nothing pro- 
gressive. It is to-day what it was centuries ago. 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 79 

If we speak of skill, however, the conditions are 
changed, but we find also that the share of 
benefit is greater, as it should be. 

It is easy to justify the disparity in the distri- 
bution of wealth on ethical principles. The 
rapid increase of wealth in modern times is ow- 
ing to the invention of machines and processes by 
which labor may be saved, and the enterprise 
of those who unite capital in the execution of 
operations too extensive for individual accom- 
plishment. It is precisely in the multiplication 
of these agencies that progress, in its economic 
aspect, consists. It is right, therefore, that the 
promoters of progress should share more largely 
in its results than those who contribute nothing. 
The laborer, left to himself, w r ould not secure 
financial progress. The inventor and the saga- 
cious man of enterprise appear and all is set in 
motion. The laborer should be profoundly 
thankful that in the issue he is bettered without 
any extra exertion on his part beyond what he 
would have put forth if others had not evolved 
progress out of stagnation. The prolific fallacy 
in all reasoning of the type here criticised is the 
false supposition that labor alone is the cause of 



80 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

progress. The truth is that the increase of 
wealth is not so much owing to labor, though 
without labor there would be no wealth, as to the 
intelligent direction of labor and the invention of 
means to take its place. It is not labor but com- 
modities that men want. The labor is benefited 
by being enabled to secure more commodities 
than before for less exertion. 



XVII. 

The Organization of Socialism. 

In order to execute its plans, Socialism is or- 
ganizing itself so as to be ready for action when 
u clangs the fateful hour." Its principal organism 
is the International Workmen's Association, more 
briefly known as " The International." It is what 
its name indicates, a cosmopolitan institution. It 
aims to extend itself in all countries and to unite 
in its cause men of all nations. In the European 
countries it is necessary to proceed with more 
secrecy than in America, so that it works through- 
out Europe as a secret society. 

It has in every country its central office, its 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 81 

heads and its propaganda. It publishes and dis- 
tributes its literature among workingmen. It 
exhorts them to form into " groups," and put 
themselves into organic relations with the society 
as active workers. Thus it proposes to extend its 
influence until it accumulates the power to change 
the government, peaceably if possible, but with 
the red hand of insurrection and bloodshed if 
necessary. 

In 1872, at the Congress held at The Hague, 
dissension arose in the ranks of the brotherhood 
as to the means to be employed in carrying into 
effect its principles. Then Bakunin was expelled, 
carrying with him a number of confrlres^ who 
constitute what is known as the " Black," while 
the others are called the "Red." The Black 
would annihilate all present governments by force. 
This is Russian Nihilism. The Red would pro- 
ceed by educational and political methods. This 
is the German policy. An official publication 
closes with these words : 

The news of this division, when brought to Bis- 
marck, provoked from him this historical remark : 
" Crowned heads, wealth, and privilege well may 
6 



82 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

tremble, should ever again the Black and the Red 
unite ! " 

There exists now no great obstacle to that unity. 
The work of peaceful education and revolutionary 
conspiracy well can and ought to run in parallel 
lines. 

The day has come for solidarity. Ho ! Reds 
and Blacks, thy flags are flying side by side ! Let 
the drum beat out defiantly the roll of battle ! 
" Workingmen of all lands, unite! You have 
nothing to lose but your chains ; you have a world 
to win." 

Tremble ! oppressors of the world ! Not far 
beyond your purblind sight there dawns the scar- 
let and sable lights of the judgment day. 

Published by order of Division Executive. 

1-41, Division Secretary. 

The exact present strength of organized Social- 
ism, either in our own country or in others, it 
would not be easy to determine. The Socialists 
themselves regard " the judgment day" as not far 
distant. How soon this fanaticism may present 
itself as open treason it is impossible to tell. The 
peculiarity of fanaticism is that it is incalculable. 
It may smoulder on until it dies away without . 
eruption, or it may break forth at any moment 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 83 

with volcanic fury. It is certain, however, that 
it would be grappled and overthrown as other 
forms of fanaticism have been, though it might 
not be without a desperate and costly struggle. 

In what way is this organized opposition to 
present social and political institutions to be met ? 
Our laws are lenient and were not made in con- 
templation of any such social revolution. It ap- 
pears as if the legal remedy would be quite inef- 
fectual. It is better to treat the movement as if 
it were mere fanaticism, as it is, to expose the 
fallacy of its doctrines to men of all classes, to 
emasculate the arm of vengeance by showing how 
uncalled for such revolutionary action is, and to 
diffuse sound views of economics and politics 
among the combustible classes in society. 

It may fairly be taken for granted that the 
American people will not be forced into servitude 
and deprived of their rights by even a very power- 
ful organization of revolutionists. The majority 
of the people cannot possibly be infected with 
these fallacious notions of society and govern- 
ment. 

The future is involved in mystery. The very 
language in which it is pictured is mysterious, 



84 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

whether because of the writer's obscurity of vision 
or ignorance of optics we cannot say. " Scarlet 
lights" we can imagine, but what "sable lights" 
may be we cannot fancy. We had always thought 
of the word " sable" as if it meant dark or black. 
It is a dreadful strain on the mind to get any 
light on " sable lights P Here is evidently a pref- 
erence for darkness rather than light, for obvious 
reasons. The " judgment day" of Socialism is 
evidently not a day when anything will be brought 
to light. 



XVIII, 

The Socialistic Retrospect. 

Communistic life is not an untried experi- 
ment, but it may safely be pronounced a failure. 
Nearly all the communities established by reli- 
gious fanatics have come to grief. Of the eleven 
experiments made under the influence of Owen, 
Notes tells us that none endured more than three 
years. The Fourierites, who followed Owen 
after his failure had been partly forgotten, had 
numerous apostles in America, among them 
Horace Greeley. Thirty -four associations were 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 85 

formed on Fourier's plan, of which few continued 
to exist more than four or five years. The little 
band of Icarians in Iowa, is the only one now left. 
The Brook Farm experiment, memorialized by 
Hawthorne in his "Blithedale Romance" and 
made conspicuous by the names of Channing, 
Curtis, Ripley, and Margaret Fuller, was a 
notoriously ridiculous fiasco. 

Something more is expected of the new political 
movement, which may be distinguished from the 
old forms of Socialism passing under the name 
of Communism, by its political and universal as- 
pirations. Never having been anywhere tried, 
the real test of its past is the effect it has pro- 
duced during the period of agitation in different 
nations. 

The centre and fountain of Socialism is Ger- 
many. Russian Nihilism is a peculiar and local 
phase of the social revolution, too ultra to require 
consideration in America. Even this derived its 
inspiration from Germany, the philosophy of 
Hegel being the manual of the early Nihilists. 
In Germany the agitation is mainly among the 
operatives in factories and idle persons fond 
of radical speculation. It has hardly extended 



86 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

to the agricultural class, who are really most op- 
pressed, having no hope of landed possessions. 
In spite of the suppression of newspapers and the 
expatriation of leaders, the doctrine has a strong 
hold, and this is shown by increasing representa- 
tion in the Reichstag. There has been a wide 
diffusion of Socialistic doctrines in Austria, where 
the peasantry and agricultural laborers have been 
subjected to more causes of discontent than in 
Prussia. The Austrian Government is very 
severe in the repression of Socialism, and this 
accounts in part for the little that is heard of the 
movement there. In France the progress of So- 
cialism is confined almost entirely to the large 
towns. The peasant proprietors of the rural dis- 
tricts furnish a strong conservative and yet in- 
dependent element. They feel that they have 
nothing to gain and everything to lose by a So- 
cialistic revolution. There is a manifest decline 
under the Republic in the Socialistic enthusiasm 
in France. The time was when nine laborers 
out of ten were Socialists, bu£ this was because 
they were revolutionists, and Socialism seemed to 
point toward the desired revolution. At present 
thev are much more divided in sentiment than 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 87 

formerly. The old Communards of 1871 still 
exist, and every now and then signs of agitation 
are visible. The Anarchist idea rises to the sur- 
face whenever times are especially hard, but it 
does not take the specific form of Socialism. Bel- 
gium, a country very largely industrial, with a 
large proportion of operatives in its population, 
was once strongly Socialistic, but Socialism has 
greatly declined. The Government has allowed 
it to stand or fall on its own merits, and the re- 
sult has been that the more its propositions have 
been discussed, the feebler their following has be- 
come. In Holland the International had a host 
of adherents in 1869, but after the downfall of 
the Paris Commune, a change of feeling occurred, 
and Socialism is dying out in Holland. Switzer- 
land has been the great camping ground of So- 
cialism, but the Socialistic sentiment has not 
rooted itself among the people. " The condition 
of Switzerland," says Kae, in " Contemporary 
Socialism," u shows us clearly enough that De- 
mocracy under a regime of freedom lends no ear 
to Socialism, but sets its face in entirely different 
directions." Spain and Italy are fertile fields for 
the growth of Socialism. Both have been the 



88 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

scene of the grossest oppression, and in both a 
large part of the population is a genuine prole- 
tariat. But in these, as in some of the other 
countries named, Socialism is in reality only a 
perverted striving to realize the idea of Republi- 
canism. In England there is said to be neither 
organ nor organization that comes to public notice 
for the advancement of Socialism. There is 
much discussion of the nationalization of land, 
but it is little more than talk. Two years ago the 
Times newspaper published an article sounding 
the alarm of the growth of Socialistic sentiment, 
but since then the only English journal devoted 
to the cause has perished for want of funds. 

American Socialism is an importation. It is 
not indigenous to our soil and does not take root 
here readily. There are, nevertheless, numerous 
Socialists *in our country, but they also are, like 
their doctrines, importations. Socialism and De- 
mocracy are incompatible, and we have elsewhere 
shown why they are. Socialism has never spon- 
taneously appeared under Republican institutions. 
It is a product of imperialism, deriving its im- 
pulses from the oppression, and its form from the 
organization, of an imperial government. 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 89 

XIX. 

A Recommendation to Socialists. 

The test of theory is practice. Schemes that 
are very seductive in their ideal presentation, 
often result in utter failure when they are tested 
by experience. The Socialistic State appears to 
us to be of this nature. We have no faith in its 
practicability, because its success would depend 
upon a reconstruction of human nature, for 
which Socialism makes no provision. Even con- 
ceding the temporary success of the Socialistic 
plan, which requires a generous exercise of imag- 
ination, the human perversity that produces such 
inequalities in life now, would in other forms 
manifest itself and defeat the realization of the 
dreams of theory. 

If only a conspicuous example of success could 
be pointed to by the advocates of the reconstruc- 
tion of the State, in which facts w r ould serve as a 
refutation of the objections presented to the 
Socialistic plans, it would accomplish more in the 
actual persuasion of reflecting men than all the 
abstract reasoning of w r hich men are capable. 

In view of these considerations, we propose to 



90 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

the Socialists the organization of a community 
large enough to exemplify the actual operations 
of the scheme. The extent of our territory, the 
cheapness of unoccupied land, the continuance of 
a surrounding civilization to which the experi- 
menters might retire in case of failure, the slight 
control of local affairs by the National Govern- 
ment, and the freedom from interruption by others 
under the protection of law, combine to furnish 
conditions the most favorable to be expected to 
the success of the enterprise. Let a colony of 
Socialistic believers be formed, take possession 
of a suitable area of good land, and establish a So^- 
cialistic State on the plan advocated by Socialists. 
The first objection to this proposal would 
probably be that pre-existing capital would be 
necessary to success. According to Socialism, the 
land itself is capital and the present demand is 
mainly for free land. But in the experiment 
proposed, the land would be free, that is, the 
possession of the community as a whole, and the 
National Government might be willing to assign 
a territory for the purpose without cost to the 
colonists. As for free tools, it is not necessary to 
have great manufactories, for the Socialistic 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 91 

State, if instituted a century or two ago, would 
have been without them, and yet, according to 
the teachings of its apostles, would .have saved 
society from its present evils. It would be only 
fair to discover whether, starting from a condi- 
tion like that of the sixteenth century, for ex- 
ample, it would be possible for the Socialistic 
State to develop any considerable industries of a 
mechanical order. As for free money, the popu- 
lation of the proposed State could agree to 
abolish all metallic money, that is, gold and 
silver, and confine itself to the boasted time- 
money, based upon the equivalence of time, with 
the hundred-minutes dollar as a unit. 

It may be said that without capital beyond 
land it would be impossible for such a com- 
munity to live for the first year, and that the 
enterprise would, therefore, perish. This ex- 
poses the true animus of Socialism, which is to 
possess itself of all the results of the existing 
form of society, in order to live without the labor 
that at present is necessary and has been neces- 
sary to those w T ho have labored for the present 
accumulations of wealth. But a cause so good 
and great as that of Socialism ought to awaken 



92 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

some enthusiasm and spirit of sacrifice among its 
devotees. If tliey are really in earnest about 
their favorite social system, it would be better 
for them to supply the required capital for the 
proposed experiment by way of a loan, or even 
in the form of direct charity, than to plunge the 
whole country, and, as they propose, the world, 
into a bloody revolution, involving the destruc- 
tion of all existing institutions beyond the hope 
of restoration. 

. "With the living exhibition of the ideal State 
before their eyes, men would be gradually led 
toward the peaceful transformation of the exist- 
ing State into the Socialistic State, and thus 
revolution could be superseded by evolution. It 
might not be long before the whole world would 
be so captivated with the beautiful and harmo- 
nious operations of the new order, that all the 
nations of the earth would adopt the doctrines of 
Socialism and the " International " would be able 
to congratulate itself upon having accomplished 
an advance in human progress that would en- 
title it to the regard of all subsequent generations 
as the world's most noble benefactor. 

So long as Socialists persist in declaring that 
the abolition of existing institutions, such as the 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 93 

private ownership of land and private property, 
is essential to the success of their plans, so long 
there will be men who will believe that the real 
end of these agitators is not the construction of a 
new social fabric but the spoliation and enjoy- 
ment of existing capital. The Nihilistic article 
in the creed of Socialism is what makes men so 
suspicious of it. We are so accustomed to inno- 
vations and reforms, that men could be induced 
to attempt almost any alteration in society if it 
could, be done quietly and experimentally, without 
burning the bridges and cutting off r>etreat s 



XX. 

The Responsibility of Socialism. 

A man who should start stones to rolling over 
a precipice at whose foot people were walking, 
would be held responsible for the injuries in- 
flicted on the passers-by. The man who should 
advocate this kind of amusement and undertake 
to defend it as a natural right, would be consid- 
ered vicious in the extreme. 

The Socialists are endeavoring to set in mo- 
tion destructive agencies, which at some unknown 
instant, with the suddenness of a rocket sent up 



94 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

in the darkness of the night, shall overturn hu- 
man society and wipe out all existing institutions. 
There is in this country, as in every other, a dis- 
contented element, not, indeed, wide-spread or 
proportionally numerous, but sufficiently large 
numerically and sufficiently combustible emotion- 
ally to constitute a dangerous presence, if ever 
fully roused and precipitated in fury upon society. 
It is this element that is most susceptible of in- 
fluence by the doctrines of Socialism. Incapable 
of comprehending the philosophical theories of 
such thinkers as Lassalle and Marx, these people 
are deeply conscious of their own unrest and are 
easily led to the commission of any desperate act 
in order to improve their situation. Their dis- 
qualification for the comprehension of Socialism 
as an ideal theory of human society, operates also 
against their apprehension of the social and polit- 
ical philosophy which exposes the fallacies of^ 
Socialism. With intellectual capacity enough to 
repeat the watchwords of the sect and to reiterate 
its dogmas, there is a rude volcanic resource of 
passion and daring that, if it ever finds eruption, 
will pour its fiery flood over the cities where it 
will burst forth, carrying ruin and desolation in 
its onward sweep. 



PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 95 

The lurid rhetoric of the Socialists is evidently 
intended to inflame the imagination and agitate 
the passions of this combustible class. Having 
evoked the spirit of destruction, can Socialism 
stay or direct the furious demon in his career of 
desolation ? When the eager and irrational mob 
once pours out of its secret retreats to devastate, 
can it be withheld from indiscriminate ruin? 
If not, what madness it is to urge men to courses 
of action that will terminate in the spoliation of 
society or the ignominious defeat and fearful 
retribution of the revolutionists ! 

There is little likelihood that the hour can be 
so well timed that insurrection w T ill accomplish 
its ends. It is probable that before the day 
chosen by the cooler and more calculating lead- 
ers, the excited rank and file will hear the stroke 
of the great clock of destiny and precipitate 
themselves prematurely upon society. The hold- 
ing in leash of the -bloodhounds once maddened 
with the scent of blood, will be a task that only 
the most effective organization and discipline 
could hope to accomplish. The defeat of the 
whole movement may thus be effected, but not 
without the destruction of life in vain and the 
dreadful punishment of those involved. 



96 PRINCIPLES AND FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM. 

It is a fearful responsibility which those as- 
sume who evoke the disorganizing forces of so- 
ciety to cure evils which are real enough, but 
which can be removed only by the continued 
progress of that slow working order, that evolu- 
tion of life that rises from lower to higher types 
in obedience to natural law. The resort to cata- 
clysm, in revolt against development, is the invo- 
cation of catastrophe in the hope of accidental 
betterment. There is no assurance that out of 
the chaos that would ensue after the destruction 
of existing institutions, Socialism could evoke a 
social cosmos. It is more than likely that the 
period of anarchy w r ould be followed by a period 
of absolute tyranny, eagerly welcomed as an or- 
ganizing and reconstructing agency capable of 
restoring what would be so keenly missed after 
it was once lost. This has been the uniform ex- 
perience of revolutionists. Socialism has no in- 
herent strength to realize its ideals after it has 
wrought its ruin. 

Let him who embarks in this movement reflect 
what evils he may bring upon himself and his 
race before he unfurls the " scarlet flag." 



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Sketches by Boz 20 

A. Christinas Carol, • 

lone Stewart 20 

Harold, 2 Parts, eacb. 15 

Dora Thorne 20 

Maid of Athens 20 

Conquest of Spain 10 

Fitzboodle Papers, etc... 10 

idge Hall 20 

Uncommercial Traveller. X'O 

Round about Papers 20 

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Cox's Dairy, etc 10 

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Life of Mahomet, Part I. 15 
Life of Mahomet, Pt. II. 15 
Sketches and Travels in ' ' 

London 10 

Oliver Goldsmith, Irving 20 

Captain Bonneville 20 

Golden Girls 20 

English Humorists. 15 

Moorish Chronicles 10 

Winifred Power 20 

Great Hoggarty Diamond 10 

Pausanias 15 

The New Abelard 20 

A Real Queen 20 

The Rose and the Ring. . 20 
Wolferts Roost ; and Mis- 
cellanies, by Irving 10 

Mark Seaworth 20 

Life of Paul Jones 20 

Round the World 20 

Elbow Room 20 

The Wizard's Son 25 

Harry Lorrequer 20 

How it All Came Round. 20 
Dante Rosetti's Poems. . . 20 

The Canon's Ward 20 

Lucile, by O. Meredith. . 20 
Every Day Cook Book.. . 20 
Lays of Ancient Rome.. 20 

Life of Burns 20 

The Young Foresters 20 

John Bull and His Island 20 
Salt Water, by Kingston. 20 

The Midshipman 20 

Proctor's Po .ms 20 

Clayton Rangers 20 

Schiller's Poems 20 

Goethe's Faust 20 

Goethe's Poems 20 

Life of Thackeray 10 

Dante's Vision of Hell, 
Purgatory and Paradise 20 

An Interesting Case 20 

Life of Byron, Nichol. ... 10 

Life of Bunyan 10 

Valerie's Fate 10 

Grandfather Lickshinede 20 

Lays of the Scottish Ca- I 

valiers 20 



852 Willis' Poems 20 

Lea of the French Re- 
volution 15 

85 1 Loom ana Lugger 20 

355 More Leaves from a Life 
m the Highlands 15 

S.-if) Hygiene oi the Brain 25 

357 Berkeley the Banker 20 

358 Homes Abroad 15 

359 Scott's Lady of the Lake, 

with note's 20 

360 Modern Christianity a 

Civilized Heathenism. . 15 
861 Life of Shelley 10 

362 Goldsmith's Plays; and 

Poems 20 

363 For Each and for All. ... 15 

Life of Scott 10 

The Pathfinder 20 

The Sergeant's Legacy. . 20 

An Old Man's Love 15 

Old Lady Mary 10 

Lifeof Hume 10 

Twice-Told Tales 20 

The Story of Chinese 

Gordon, A. E. Hake... 20 

Hilland Valley 15 

Essays, by Emerson 20 

Essays, by George Eliot. . 20 

Science at Home 20 

Grandfathers Chair 20 

Lifeof Defoe 10 

Homeward Bound 20 

The Charmed Sea 15 

Life of Locke 10 

A Fair Device 20 

Thaddensof Warsaw.... 20 

Lifeof Gibbon 10 

Dorothy Forster 20 

Swiss Family Robinson. . 26 
Childhood of the World. . 10 

Princess Napraxine 25 

Life m the Wilds 15 

Paradise Lost.. 20 

The Land Question 10 

Homer's Odyssey 20 

Lifeof Milton 10 

Social Problems 20 

The Giant's Robe 20 

Sowers not Reapers 15 

Homers Iliad 30 

Arabian Nights' Enter- 
tainments 25 

Lifeof Pope 10 

John Holdsworth 20 

Glen of the Echoes 15 

Life of Johnson 10 

How he Reached the 

White House 25 

Poems, by E. A. Poe 20 

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Life of J. G. Blaine 20 

Pole on Whist 15 

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Over the Summer Sea. . . 20 

A Perilous Secret 20 

Lalla Rookh, by Moore. . 20 

Don Quixote 30 

" I Say No." by Collins. . 20 
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Aurora Leigh 20 

Cavendish Card Essays. . 15 

Repented at Leisure 20 

Life of Cowper, Smith.. . 10 

Self-Help, by Smiles 25 

Narrative of A. Gordon 
Pym 15 



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428 Robinson Crusoe 25 

429 Called Back, by Conway. 15 

430 Burns' Poems 20 

431 Life of Spenser \\ 

432 The Gold Bug, by Poe... 15 

433 Wrecks in the Sea of Life 20 

434 Typhaings Abbey 25 

485 Miss Tommy, by Mulock. 15 

436 The Light of Asia 20 

437 Tales of Two Idle Ap- 

prentices 15 

438 The Assignation & Other 

Tales, by E. A. Poe.... 15 

439 Noctes Ambrosianse 80 

440 History of the Mormons. 15 

441 Home as Found 20 

442 Tame's English Litera- 

ture 40 

443 Bryant's Poems 20 

444 An Ishmaelite 20 

445 The Rival Doctors, by 

Lapointe 20 

446 Tennyson's Poems 40 

447 The Murder in the Rue 

Morgue and Other Tales 15 

448 Life of Fredrika Bremer. 20 

449 Quisisana 20 

450 Whittier's Poems 20 

451 Doris, by The Duchess. . 20 

452 Mystic London 20 

453 Black Poodle and Other 

Tales, by F. Anstey.... 20 

454 The Golden Dog 40 

455 Pearls of the Faith 15 

456 Judith Shakespeare 20 

457 Pope's Poems 30 

458 Sunshine and Roses 20 

459 John Bull and His Daugh- 

ters, by Max O'Rell .... 20 

460 Galaski, by Bayne 20 

461 Socialism 10 

462 Dark Days 15 

463 Deerslayer, by Cooper. . . 30 

464 Two years before the 

Mast, by R. H. Dana, Jr 20 

465 Earl's Atonement 20 

466 Under the Will, by Hay.. 10 

467 Prairie, by Cooper 20 

468 The Count of Talavera.. 20 

469 Chase, by Lermina 20 

470 Vic, by A. Benrimo 15 

471 Pioneer, by Cooper 25 

472 Indian Sons of Songs 10 

473 Christmas Stories 20 

474 A Woman's Temptation. 20 

475 Sheep in Wolf's Clothing. 20 

476 Love Works Wonders 20 

477 A Week in Killarney 10 

478 Tartarin of Tarascon 20 

479 Mrs. Browning's Poems. 35 

480 Alice's Adventures 20 

481 Through the Looking- 

Glass, by Lewis Carroll 20 

482 Longfellow's Poems 20 

483 The Child Hunters 15 

484 The Two Admirals 20 

485 My Roses, by French ... 20 

486 History of the French 

Revolution. Vol. I.... 25 

486 History of the French 

Revolution. Vol. II... 25 

487 Moore's Poems 40 

488 Water Witch 20 

489 Bride of Lammermoor. . . 20 

490 Black Dwarf 10 

491 Red Rover 2£ 

492 Castle Dangerous IS 

493 Legend of Montrose 15 

494 Past and Present 20 

495 Surgeon's Daughter 10 

496 Woman's Trials 20 

497 Sesame and Lilies 10 

198 Dryden's Poems,.., 30 



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